The Second Brain

Saturday, December 30th, 2017

Did you ever meet someone and immediately feel like your underwear was all twisted? Did you ever say to yourself “I can’t stomach that guy?” You can thank your second brain for being there to give you signals of distress, anxiety or need for caution.

Yes, the stomach and colon areas are vital for digestion of food. However, there is more. This part of your body is way smarter than you think. This area helps us all “feel” the inner world of our gut and its contents. There’s an intricate web of nerves that doesn’t need the brain in our head to do what needs to be done. They’re virtual workers who don’t have to commute.

Here’s an important fact: More than 90 percent of the body’s serotonin lies in the gut, as well as about 50 percent of dopamine. Serotonin affects mood and social behavior, appetite and digestion sleep, memory, and sexual desire and function. And dopamine makes you feel happy when you do something that gives you a reward. Moreover, the bowel, with its hundred million-plus nerve cells, is ‘the only organ that contains an intrinsic nervous system that is able to mediate reflexes in the complete absence of input from the brain or spinal cord.

If you take this seriously, you will change some of the ways you respond to daily situations. You will begin to trust that “gut feeling” is more than just a fleeting idea. If it “feels right” or ‘feels dangerous” pay attention.

You can now harness the power of the mind-gut connection to achieve optimum health that generates a more positive mindset. Take it to work, and take it home.

Summing-up: your brain is partly inside your skull and partly in the walls of your intestinal tract and these areas cooperate in the process of our thoughts and emotions. These are our human brains. If they cooperate, you are healthy. If not, lots of dissonance can happen.